Interlaced
by XX.Star.X
Summary: After Brianna's town is attacked by pirates for the second time in her life, she is reminded of the horrors in her past. She sets out to find the ship that attacked her village so long ago, and gets mixed up with a different pirate ship that you all might find familiar.
**Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean!**

 **A/N: Yes, I know this doesn't have anything to do with POTC yet, but it will, I promise :) Enjoy!**

* * *

Brianna jerked awake in the midst of the night to the terror-driven screams of the people that were just outside her window. Brianna's eyes spun about until the source of the horror that lay in the night was located: pirates. The sight of the foul men angered her greatly. This was not the first time her poor little town had been ransacked by the vile creatures. A memory of a ship with red-trimmed black sails popped into Brianna's mind. The thought made her jump and go to look out the other window, the one facing the port. The ship the pirates had arrived in was surprisingly small for a pirate ship, and had clearly been attacked prior to the current incident.

The stench of something burning mixed with the sound of snapping branches had Brianna instinctively swivel her head around once again. Her eyes passed over Geo, the old, bald man who lived next door to her. He panicked and let loose a high pitched scream as flames crept closer and closer to him. Brianna was freaking out. The house just next to hers was ablaze, and memories were flooding her mind. Tears stood in her eyes as she remembered the last time pirates had invaded the town.

* * *

 _I stood in my bedroom, hugging myself. The fires danced around the house, enveloping the gorgeous building that I used to call home. I needed to get out of there. But I was too frightened to move._

 _"Mom!" I screamed. I then started shouting incomprehensible words of fear and panic. I was going to die. I. Was. Going. To. Die._

 _"Brianna!" my mother yelled back to me. The sweet sound of her voice had been corrupted by the fear locked in her heart due to the disastrous and unfortunate circumstances. However, knowing that she had heard my unspoken plea for help amidst my untranslatable shouting gave me a push of courage._

 _"I'm coming Mom!" I called to my mother. "We're going to get out of here!" I couldn't continue my life without seeing her again. So, I stumbled through the scorching hot hallway and ran down the stairs, trembling. I clumsily staggered my way through the kitchen, avoiding the deathly flames just inches away._

 _My mother and father were just out of my grasp, when a sound too painful to bear rose up above the cackling of the fire. My baby sister, Amanda, was screaming._

 _"We have to save her!" I shouted at my parents. My younger brother, Bradly, walked out of the living room. He was wincing and clutching his left leg, struggling to remain on his feet. I dashed over to him and walked him over to my parents, who had still not lifted a finger for Amanda._

 _"Aren't you going to do something?" I screamed at them, tears flickering in my eyes. "She's your daughter for god's sake! You can't just let her die!" I was terrified and disappointed at the same time. I broke down crying, the tears now in a constant flow down my face._

 _"It's better to let her die alone than get ourselves killed trying to save her," my father told me. My mother nodded in agreement. What had happened to my parents? What had made them so heartless?_

 _"No! You're going to go get her!" I demanded of them. To my further disappointment, they only shook their heads._

 _"She's going to die either way, honey," my mother said to me in the voice that she used to use when she was trying to cheer me up. Now it was to make depressing things sound less depressing. But she had not succeeded, in making my sister's death seem less depressing, or in stopping me from trying to save her._

 _I ran down the hall. I attempted to locate my sister for only about fifteen seconds when I became successful. She was trapped in a corner of the dining room, fire surrounding her._

 _"Amanda!" I screamed, utterly distraught. I could not watch my sister die right in front of me. I had to save her._

 _I picked up a chair that was not made of wood, so it wouldn't easily catch on fire. I hacked away at the fire, but to no avail. The heat was scorching me, and I was sweating profusely. I felt lightheaded, and I knew that this was the end._

 _I awoke a short time later, outside my previous home. The fire was almost done eating away at my beloved house. The screams of my poor little sister had stopped. I only hoped that my parents had come to their senses and gotten her out._

 _I turned to my father, who was most likely the one that had dragged me to safety, as he was right next to me. "Where's Amanda?" I asked, anticipating the worst but hoping for the best._

 _"She's dead," he responded, not even the slightest bit of emotion in his voice. I couldn't hold back anything anymore. I started bawling. I was too upset and disappointed to even respond to my father's stone cold words._

 _The last thing I saw that night was the ship at the port, where the cackling pirates had returned to. It was quite a large ship, and had black sails rimmed with red material. The image of that wretched ship was burned forever into my mind._

* * *

Brianna had mastered her self-defense and learned how to fight with a sword and a bow and arrow after that. She swore that she would avenge her little sister. She still didn't know what had infiltrated her parents' minds that night to make them stop caring about their daughter. But that didn't matter anymore. Brianna was going to avenge Amanda. And she'd start tonight.

She waited for the chaos surrounding her to die down, before stuffing her dagger into the deep pocket of her brown cargo pants. The fires had died, and the darkness had been reinstated. Brianna dashed from her house down to the pier in a matter of minutes. She shielded herself from the watchful eyes of the few people roaming the streets at such an early hour.

She crept closer to the docks, and heard two people talking about the boats. She hid and looked at the men. One was short and fat, the other was skinny and tall.

"I heard we're going back to Port Royal in only two hours," the fat one informed the skinny one.

"That's a bit early, don't you think?" the skinny one queried.

"Hey, I don't make the rules!" said the fat one defensively.

The two continued bickering about unimportant information. This gave Brianna a bit of time to sneak aboard the ship. But as she reached the pier, there was someone standing there, looking disappointed.

"Uh, I was, umm, just admiring the ship, it's really nice, I like the sails, they look big," Brianna rambled in panic. She then recognized the figure before her.

"Bradly!" she yelped in surprise.

"Shush, you're going to get us caught," he warned.

"Why are you here?" Brianna inquired.

"I know what you're doing. I can't let you go alone," Bradley demanded.

"Well, I can't let you come with me," Brianna responded.

"You're seeming to forget that it was also _my_ sister who died because _my_ house burned down. This matters to me too," Bradley reminded her.

"I don't want to put you in danger. I already lost Amanda," she said, trying to come up with reasons to persuade Bradley to stay.

"You're not putting me in danger. I'm putting myself in danger," he replied.

"No. I won't stand for it," Brianna protested.

"It doesn't matter if you'll stand for it or not. Either I'm coming with you or you're not going at all," Bradley announced.

Brianna sighed. "Fine, just don't get yourself killed," she agreed reluctantly.

The siblings boarded the ship, making sure they weren't being watched. They split up, and hid in several spots, keeping close tabs on which cabins housed the crew, and which were unused.

The ship was already moving by the time the siblings had confirmed a cabin in which they could stow away.

"I know it's not the safest plan, but it'll be fine. There are tons of ships going in and out of Port Royal, and we'll find that ship somewhere in the ocean," Brianna told Bradley.

For days, the siblings took turns sleeping and watching guard. They managed to make it to Port Royal and off the ship without being caught, even if it came too close for comfort on more than one occasion.

* * *

"We need a plan," Bradley said to Brianna after they had snuck off of the ship at Port Royal.

"We find some food. We stow away again," responded Brianna as if it were the most obvious statement in the universe.

"But where do we go? Where are we even supposed to look for this ship?" Bradley questioned, agitated.

"We go where the ship takes us" was all Brianna said to that.

Bradley followed Brianna to a small market that didn't sell much. They picked up a few apples and a bottle of water.

"Let's find a ship," Brianna suggested.

"We should wait until night, then we will have a smaller chance of being spotted," Bradley pointed out.

So the siblings sat under a tree and talked for most of the day, occasionally sleeping or taking sips of the water.

"How did you know that I was going to go after the ship?" Brianna asked.

"I've known ever since our house burned down. You just have such compassion for those you care about, and you're willing to go to lengths for them that I wouldn't even think about," Bradley replied admiringly.

"Yet you were going to do the same thing," Brianna said.

"Yeah, I… I wasn't really going to go alone. Or at all, really. But I just knew I couldn't lose my only other sister, so I had to come after you," Bradley responded, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at the ground.

"I love you Bradley," Brianna said.

"Love you too," Bradley replied.

* * *

Night arrived sooner than either sibling had anticipated. The dim street lights gave an eerie glow to the streets. Brianna and Bradley approached the dock, attempting to retrace their steps from the morning, when they had arrived.

The siblings set foot aboard another ship, following the same routine as the previous situation. They were still in the water several days after the ship had set off. Brianna was currently on guard duty when the sound of cannon fire was heard. Bradley bolted upright in the bed.

The two siblings foolishly stumbled onto the deck of the ship. They were being attacked by a ship with black sails. Unfortunately, there was no red lining around the sails.

The siblings swung across ropes on multiple occasions to avoid being seen. They certainly did not fit in with either group of sailors. It was dangerous for them to be out of their cabin, but they had decided to see if the ship was the ship they were searching for.

The pirates had stolen everything they wanted from the merchant ship and were now on their way. A while before that, though, the siblings had collapsed in a small hiding spot on the ship. For some reason, the ship seemed incredibly different than it had been before the attack.

"I think it's probably because there are some holes in the ship, and some water could've gotten in. That's why it's moving differently," Brianna suggested, dismissing any other idea.

But Bradley could clearly see that this was not to be dismissed as anything other than what it was. And what it was, was something that neither sibling wanted to admit to the other or even think about. The pair sat in silence on the boat for a few minutes, before Bradley decided to speak up about the issue.

"Sis," he said, gaining Brianna's attention. "I think we're on the wrong ship."

Brianna slowly nodded, terrified of what they're future may hold.

"We're not going to get off this one," she whispered to him.


End file.
